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What did you do to your motorcycle today?

Hi all, I've only owned two motorcycles since I've been riding these past five years and I'm still learning about these wonderful machines. I love to tinker and learn all I can. I have started this thread in hopes of seeing what everyone else does to their motorcycle. Maybe we can all learn a little bit more from each other and about how different makes are put together, idk...
Anyway, I plan on posting in here (hopefully with pictures) every time I do a repair or modification. Feel free to do the same!

To start off:Saturday*I replaced all four of my turn signals. The old ones were cracked, faded, and not very visible*Added a pair of universal forward foot pegs on my engine crash bars. This will help my long legs during my commute (~50 highway mi/day)

Yesterday*Removed the gas tank and replaced all four of my spark plugs*Removed, cleaned, re-installed fuel strainer at the base of the tank*Replaced missing swingarm bolt caps (had to special order from the dealer)

More to come...I have some more parts to install and hopefully I can do that tonight after work

Good thread and it is cool to see you getting acquainted with your "new" bike. It looks like a late-70's CB750ss from the side view.

I am getting ready for a Father's Day ride this weekend with a bunch of my old fart dual-sport guys. We are leaving on Friday at noon from Phoenix and riding up to an area just South of the South Rim called Strawberry; the ride is about 100 miles on the road each way and about 20 miles to get out and go camping. Saturday mid-morning we will take about a 50 mile dirt ride, return back to the campsite and then go home from there.

My bike is a 2009 Kawasaki KLR650 with some basic farkles like the cheap carb mods, modified factory exhaust system, custom seat, PD crash bars and skid plates from happy-trail.com and a new "doohickey" (timing chain tensioner and related hardware) along with some new stuff I just did listed below this weekend.

I have been just doing the simple things in the past year to my new bike so as I had a few weeks between events I took the liberty of buying a new set of tires to replace my 7,000 mile-worn knobbies. I have read good things about Shinko tires so I bought a set of Shinko 705's which are a 50/50 road/dirt tire that are pretty reasonably priced. I bought them locally along with a new Harbor Freight bike lift (one of those hydraulic dealies that is normally $399 marked-down to $279) so I took the place my wheels only for a day. The total cost for everything was about $139 with mounting and balancing so I am anxious to see how they perform compared to the stock Dunlops.

While the wheels were off I took the time to do the following things:

1) Pull off the front forks and install a pair of Ricor Shocks front fork cartridge damping emulators along with new seals and cutting the spacer to fit the emulators. I also replaced the shock oil with Amsoil 5w fork oil.

2) I pulled apart the steering head assembly and fitted the two bearings with a Zerks fitting and re-greased both and checked the tension to make sure it was properly done.

3) I re-greased the front wheel bearings and re-installed the front wheel.

4) I pulled apart the rear swing-arm and Zerked that one too and lubed up all of the bearing points.

5) While I was in there I replaced the factory rear shock with a Ricor model with their Inertia Active System( http://store.ricorshocks.com/) and adjusted the sag, etc..

6) I removed the chain while the rear wheel was off and cleaned it and put it back on the bike. I then put the back wheel on, set the chain tension and squared it off and then lubed the chain.

7) The fun part of the weekend was spent upgrading the subframe support bolts. The ones that come on the KLR are notoriously weak and if you are doing any off-roading with a load they are known to snap. This involves drilling a pilot hole with a hardened bit straight through a top-section of the frame and then widening it to fit the larger subframe bolt along with a spacer that reinforces the spot a bit more. Then you replace the lower bolts and apply red loctite to all involved.

8) Just tonight I changed my oil and filter and installed my 7/8" handlebar risers and took it out for a spin. Tomorrow I have a casual day at work and plan on riding it in just to get some miles on it before my trip.

I apologize for no pictures to share but just close your eyes and... imagine.

Finally got around, after a very long winter, to breaking out the Bandit, dewinterizing it (started up first crank ) and cleaning the biatch up.

When I got her (you cant see the 3 pounds of mud on the wheels and frame from when the kid laid it down) :

How shes lookin now:

The SV? Flushed every single fluid, very thorough chain cleaning (took off clutch cover and side plates and cleaned the front sprocket and the half a pound of crap that was caked all around it), and rode the piss outta her.

Big changes to come to the bandit this winter, i mean a frame up resto! And the SV, the GSXR front end swap is begging!

Good thread and it is cool to see you getting acquainted with your "new" bike. It looks like a late-70's CB750ss from the side view.

You're on the right track Paul. A bit newer though. It's a 1991 CB750 "Nighthawk."

Today I replaced my handlebar mounts. One of them was bent; I'm guessing that a previous owner dropped it at some point. I also replaced the rubber bushings that fit around the shafts. Torqued everything to spec as per my Clymer repair manual.

You can't really see it that well in the pic below, but it is slightly bent. It was more noticeable when installed on the bike.

As for things I did to mine latley (yesterday), I ordered some mirrors (bar ends) for my SV finally...those will be here late this week I think.

Also have been getting the suspension dialed in. I have one more adjustment to make and I'll be 100% happy with the new setup. High speed compression is a little stiff yet on the rear shock, need to back it off just a tad. Next on the list is a good tank bag, never bought one before - good thing about the SV is the tank is all steel, been looking at those magnetic dealies... Anyone have any advice on those?

I was subjected to a last-minute flat on a brand-new Shinko 700 rear tire while heading up to my motorcycle camping trip on Friday.

Needless to say I wasn't very happy about it. The place that i bought them through that did the mounting and balancing was about four miles away so i pulled off the highway and rode the shoulder up to their shop.